An American delegation, led by Ryan Crocker, deputy assistant secretary of U.S. State Department, discussed on Friday the situation in Iraq and northern Iraq together with officials from the Middle East department of the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara. Crocker, who visited northern Iraq recently and met with the leaders of the Iraqi Kurdish parties, stated following the meeting that the United States is for a unified Iraq within its present borders.

According to Turkish Daily News, Crocker informed the Turkish delegation headed by Turkekul Kurttekin, the head of the Middle East department of the Turkish Foreign Ministry about his talks in the area at a four-hour-long meeting in Ankara. Cenk Duatepe, the head of the Intelligence and Searching Department of the Foreign Ministry, shortly entered the meeting room, to join Crocker, with whom he had served as the ambassador in Damascus.

Crocker met with the representatives of Assyrian, Kurdish and Turkoman groups in northern Iraq during his three-day-long talks in the region.

Officially, Turkey objects possible US attack on Iraq. The Turkish National Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said last month “we repeated several times that Turkey doesn’t want an operation in Iraq; however, new conditions might call for new assessments.”

When asked to clarify the ”new conditions”, Cakmakoglu commented “this is a general statement I made and it isn’t based on any specific information.” (albawaba.com)